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First, tocompile the five-year legislation plan and annual legislation plan. Thecontents of a five-year plan are strongly influenced by the concurrentfive-year economic and social development plan which is also compiled by theState Council. In this sense, the inclusions of a regulation on five-year planis no guarantee for its being drafted. The annual plan, on the other hand, ismuch more followed by the Legal Affairs Bureau of State Council. If aregulation is to be drafted and to be promulgated, usually it is a prerequisiteto get it on the annual plan. Beginning from the very first stage, law-makinginvites struggles. As a Western scholar observed, Ministries employ varioustactics to get their preferred legislation on the annual plan.16
Second, draftingregulation. While the Legal Affairs Bureau of the State Council usually takes aconsiderable bulk of regulation drafting work, not all administrativeregulations are drafted by it. Many regulations were drafted by Ministries towhich the drafted regulations are relevant. Usually, if a ministry wins a placeon the agenda for its proposed draft regulation, the ministry and the LegalAffairs Bureau will establish a drafting group(qicao xiaozu). The group is led by the Bureau and will includerepresentatives of the principal drafting ministry and of other “concerneddepartments” to produce an “opinion-solicitation draft” (zhengqiu yijian gao).
Third,soliciting opinions. When the draft is finished, the Legislative Affairs Bureaucirculates the draft to all other closely concerned ministries or departments,and then later to other departments and provincial governments, and, in recentyears, to selected legal scholars to solicit opinions on the draft. Opinionssuggesting revisions, then, are returned to the Legislative Affairs Bureauwhich shall forward the comments and opinions to the drafting group, togetherwith the Bureau’s comments summarized from solicited opinions. The drafting groupwill then revise the draft. This process is usually repeated several timesbefore the Bureau submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the StateCouncil for discussion and vote.
Forth,coordinating competing opinions among departments and between centraldepartments and local governments. Since regulations are relating to allocationof powers and interests among different agencies, in the drafting andopinion-soliciting process those agencies involved usually struggle to benefitmore from the coming regulation. Thus, the opinions solicited form involvedagencies are sharply contending, which makes the coordination necessary. In essence, the process ofcoordinating competing opinions is a process in which departments and localgovernments bargain and comprise with each other in order to maximize eachinterests, advocated by the Legal Affairs Bureau.
Fifth, reviewingthe revised draft and compiling the explanation and the report of the draftbefore it goes to the Standing committee of the State Council for discussionand ratification. The Legislative Affairs Bureau reviews the revised draft (cao’an) to check its legality andconsistency with laws of the NPC and previous regulations. The bureau then makean explanation (shuoming) of theproposed draft and a detailed report of the draft (shencha baogao), and its own final recommendation (yijian) about the draft.
Sixth,Ratification of the draft. The draft, together with the explanation, report,and final recommendation made by the Legal Affairs Bureau, then goes to theStanding committee of the State Council for discussion and ratification.Usually there is a formal meeting—the executive meeting (changwu huiyi)---presided by the Premier attended by vice-premiers,State councilors, and the Secretary General of the State Council,17inwhich the official form the Legislative Affairs Bureau and a representative ofthe drafting departments present the draft, the explanation, the report and therecommendation. The constitution does not state the procedure for the StateCouncil to pass its regulations. In practice, however, the Premier virtuallyhas thepower to make finaldecision, since the Constitution of 1982 provides that the Premier assumesoverall responsibility for the work of the State Council,18and that the Premier directs the work of the State Council.19Andthe pass of a regulation takes the form of that the Premier sign his/her nameto ratify it.
Finally,publication of the ratified regulation. According to a notice concerningadministrative regulation-making procedure issued by the State Council on May31, 1988, all administrative regulations ratified and signed by the Premiershall be published in both the StateCouncil Gazette (guowuyuang gongbao)and the People’s Daily to make thempublic.
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